Roomful Express Furniture

As we entered our 50^th year in business, we wanted to find a way to celebrate that would be different than just a celebration or special sale. I felt that, in this year when so many families struggle with high gasoline prices and mortgage problems, our company should do something to help our community.

In that spirit, we have initiated a program that will last until September and help over 50 families in our community. This program is like no other and gives our customers the opportunity to get involved to help others.

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Roomful Express is very proud to be a sponsor of Team Slipstream/Chipotle, the premier US professional cycling team in 2008. In a town where the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates reign supreme, our customers may ask “why sponsor a professional cycling team?”

The answer is simple. Our company wants to be associated with marketing partners, vendors and employees that are the finest, most honorable and most progressive companies. Team Slipstream is such a partner.
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I took a survey the other day in the Wall Street Journal that looked at how many times I fell asleep while watching television in an easy chair, while reading a book or magazine or even at a movie or concert. I did not fare well in answering the survey questions.

The Bottom line….. I need more sleep. I think this applies to many of us. Many people are sleep deprived. Some of us just need more hours of sleep but many of us need a better, newer set of bedding to help us get better sleep.

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Our company delivers over 1,000 pieces of furniture to customers daily.  We take great care in preparing each piece for delivery including removing all packaging, attaching handles, testing mechanisms, applying fabric and leather protectants ( if purchased by the customer) and fully inspecting each piece before it is loaded onto delivery vehicles for transportation to our customers’ homes.

As you can imagine, the leftover cardboard, plastic wrap and Styrofoam from over 1000 pieces of furniture is overwhelming at times.  We fill 40 yard dumpster after 40 yard dumpster trying to keep up with the amount of waste that is produced in our distribution facility every day.

At the beginning of 2008, we have instituted new programs in our distribution facility that will soon make it a completely “green” facility. We now are recycling all cardboard, plastic, white paper and Styrofoam.  The Styrofoam program alone has reduced our need for waste removal by two large 40 yard dumpsters per week.  The plastic, cardboard and white paper programs will reduce our waste even more.

We are very proud of our recycling programs.  They are good for everyone including our company, our customers, our employees and our communities.  Let me know what you think.  I’d love to hear from you.

Many of our upholstered furniture products are now covered in Microfiber. This term is thrown around so much that we expect that everyone automatically knows what it is. In fact, many people do not.

Microfiber is a fiber with very thin strands. By definition, these strands are less than one denier. (A denier is a unit of measure for the linear mass density of fiber.) A one denier polyester fiber has a diameter of about 10 micrometers. In other words it’s a really, really small fiber.

Because the fiber is so small, it can be made to look like suede or leather and it makes very beautiful furniture. Fabrics made with microfibers are very soft, durable and can repel water.

It is, however, not unstainable or indestructible. It is possible to ruin your microfiber furniture if you don’t take proper care of it.

Our sales professionals in our stores can assist you in showing you how amazing these fabrics look and feel. They can also help you with understanding how to properly care for microfiber furniture. For those of you who have microfiber, please tell me how you like it or better yet show me a picture of your microfiber furniture in your home.

Every time you see one of our commercials and more often those of our competition, it screams no payment and no interest for many months. Up to almost six years during some promotions. It all sounds really inviting doesn’t it?

Let’s be frank about these offers. They usually come with several strings attached. High down payments, high minimum purchases and to qualify your credit record needs to be virtually spotless.

These financing promotions are provided to us and our competitors by the same credit card companies that charge each of us exorbitant interest rates on our MasterCard and Visa cards and they extract the same high fees from our company to provide these long term offers.

At Roomful Express Furniture, we want to sell furniture, not financing!!

We will continue to provide the same types of offers as our competitors with respect to financing. You will never have to worry they have a better financing deal than we can provide you. It won’t have to be a decision making factor for you. We all do the same thing when it comes to finance offers.

I want you to buy from us because we have the best furniture value for your hard earned dollar. More importantly, buy from us because we will treat you as a VIP in our stores, when we deliver your furniture and when you need our help in any way. I am committed to having every employee and delivery person understand how important you are to our company.

This differentiates our company from any other furniture retailer anywhere. You have my commitment to you. Let me know if we have fulfilled my commitment. Send me a comment!

As we approach the upcoming holidays, I always like to reflect on the past year. The holidays give us time to be thankful for our families and friends and for the experiences of 2007 both good and bad.

It is also a great time to give back to our communities both with our time and with charitable donations. At Roomful Express Furniture, we have chosen to work with Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh that helps so many needy children from the communities where our stores and distribution center are located. The Hospital’s Free Care Fund provides free care to those families that might not be able to otherwise afford the excellent health care that Children’s Hospital provides its patients.

We will donate over $30,000 to the Free Care Fund this year alone and in the last five years our customers, employees and friends have helped us raise over $180,000 for this worthy cause.

At Roomful Express we are so thankful for our customers and employees. May each one of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Many people think that furniture delivery at Roomful Express Furniture involves the simple procedure of taking a sofa or other home furnishing from our warehouse floor and loading onto a truck and delivering it directly to your home.

This is far from accurate as we take great care in professionally preparing the furniture for delivery and placement in your home. In today’s entry, I want to focus on what happens after you complete your sales transaction at one of our stores and set a delivery date.

Two days before your delivery date, our store personnel will call you and assure that the date you originally established is still convenient for you to receive your new furniture. They will call until they are able to speak with someone personally or are able to leave a message on your telephone.

The day before your delivery, our warehouse management system receives information to process your order. Our delivery team uses sophisticated routing software to efficiently route the deliveries for the following day. During that day, they make a courtesy call to you and give you a two hour window of time in which we estimate your delivery will be made. Your furniture is picked by one of our customized furniture forklifts and moved to the preparation area assigned for your delivery area.

In this preparation area, the furniture is removed from its box or wrapping. Legs, drawer handles and other assembly is completed. It is then inspected by furniture craftsmen, fabric, leather or woodcare protection is applied, if applicable, and then the furniture is rewrapped or repackaged before it is placed in the delivery bay for the next day’s delivery. A senior quality control inspector reviews all the delivery bays and all furniture pieces at the end of the day.

The delivery drivers arrive with their delivery vehicles early the next morning beginning at 5am to load your furniture in the correct sequence based upon the routed stops for that day. Each delivery vehicle is inspected by management for cleanliness and the proper stocking of supplies to successfully complete the assigned deliveries.

The Delivery driver and helper begin their deliveries to our customers’ homes. When they arrive, they will inspect the doorways and path of their delivery to assure the delivery will go smoothly. After placing your furniture, they will call our Customer Support Center and allow you to speak with a representative to assure you are satisfied with your delivery and new furniture.

We constantly review our preparation and delivery methods, personnel and equipment to assure you love your new furniture and that our service in delivering it to you is second to none.

Let me know what you think. Tell me about your delivery experience with us and other companies too. What made them memorable?

When we launched our new website on September 25, 2007, I was excited to be able to bring to our customers a large selection of furniture and as much information about our company, products and services as possible.

As part of our new site, I wanted a place to do what I have been doing for years with our customers and employees, talk about our business, only now on a global scale. I believe in a team approach and straight talk to everything we do in our organization and this includes involving our customers.

In my blog, I will tell you about current events in our company. I’ll discuss things that might be confusing about buying furniture and try to make them clearer for you. I’ll also share with you some of the tremendous efforts our over 400 employees make in bringing you great furniture at great prices with an even greater level of service. I will share how a vision to sell sewing machines in 1958 has turned into one of the top selling furniture companies in the United States.

The bottom line is this, I believe in communicating with our customers and our new website and a blog gives me a whole new way of doing so.

Tell me what you think and together we will make Roomful Express Furniture the best possible place for you to furnish you home.